John Mccain

Midday Open Thread — Schadenfreuderiffic: The 10 worst predictions for 2008. Minnesota has called off the search for those 133 missing ballots. But although election officials know exactly which envelope of ballots is missing, the Coleman campaign is denying that there are missing ballots. That's not desperate at all. Larry Craig has lost his latest appeal. Shocker. Indian police have a new suspect in the Mumbai attacks. How did the ability to make atomic bombs spread around the world? The NYT's Dot Earth blog suggests that green jobs must go beyond physical infrastructure to intellectual infrastructure. Katha Pollitt rips Bill Ayers a new... [Tags: atomic bombs, bill ayers, dday, governor tim pawlenty, henry kissinger]

"To Return, Unscathed" — by Chris Bodenner McCain spokeswoman Nicolle Wallace waxes poetic on her boss's "exquisite" concession speech: Drafted by Mark Salter, and handed to him on election night in a somber suite at the Biltmore hotel in Phoenix, the speech set a new standard for grace in defeat. That night as we waited for the polls to close so Sen. McCain could publicly concede the election to Barack Obama, McCain said to Salter, “It’s your best ever, my boy, your best ever.” The pit in my stomach turned into a lump in my throat. ... The speech sent a powerful signal around... [Tags: barack obama, biltmore hotel in phoenix, cindy mccain, claps, concession speech]

Obama Campaign Mulls What To Do With $30M Surplus — WASHINGTON — Democrats carrying significant campaign debt after winning a string of House and Senate races are grumbling about President-elect Barack Obama's financial reserves, saying the party's leader is sitting on a pile of cash while Democratic leaders are broke. Obama's organization retains some $30 million after his successful presidential bid, but it's unclear how the Democratic president-in-waiting might use the money. Members of his party are doing their best to appeal for the funds without appearing greedy, ungrateful or hostile to their new leader. "If I was a top adviser to the president elect, I wouldn't necessarily be advocating... [Tags: campaign debt, congressional campaign committee, democratic congressional campaign, democratic congressional campaign committee, democratic national committee]

Palin's Stylists Were Paid $55,000 In Final Weeks — Following yesterday's report on an additional $30,000 in "accessories" spending by Governor Sarah Palin during the Presidential campaign, the New York Times has information on the money made by her makeup artist and hair stylist: Gov. Sarah Palin's traveling makeup artist was paid $68,400 for roughly two months of work, according to a new campaign finance report filed with the Federal Election Commission. Ms. Palin's makeup artist, Amy Strozzi -- who was nominated for an Emmy award for her cosmetics work on the television show "So You Think You Can Dance?" -- was paid $32,400 by Senator John McCain's presidential... [Tags: angela, campaign finance report, cosmetics, emmy award, federal election commission]

Obama's Final Fundraising Number: Nearly $750 Million — WASHINGTON — Barack Obama's presidential campaign raised $104 million in the weeks around Election Day, a grand finale to a successful bid that shattered fundraising records. Overall, Obama raised nearly $750 million during his odyssey to the presidency, according to reports being filed with the Federal Election Commission. The reporting period covered Oct. 15 to Nov. 24. The campaign said more than 1 million contributors donated during the period, with more than half donating for the first time. Throughout the campaign, more than 3.95 million contributors gave to the eventual president-elect, his campaign said. The Democrat's fundraising and his spending... [Tags: attracting money, barack obama, campaign finance institute, campaign finance reforms, cash balance]

Obama Campaign Manager To Write Book — NEW YORK — Barack Obama's campaign manager, David Plouffe, is writing a book about the historic election victory and has retained Washington attorney Robert Barnett, Obama's literary representative, to shop the proposal to publishers. The book has been tentatively titled, "The Audacity To Win," a reference to Obama's million-selling "The Audacity of Hope." Having helped manage one of the most sophisticated and highly praised campaigns ever, Plouffe plans not only an inside look at the Obama run but also advice for how to manage a large organization. "Hopefully, there will be some lessons on how to put together a three-quarters... [Tags: audacity, barack obama, campaign aides, campaign manager, campaigns]

Palin Files Late Disclosure For Free 2007 Trips — ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Gov. Sarah Palin has added to her financial disclosure forms two free trips that she took nearly two years ago but failed to report. Palin, who was Republican presidential candidate John McCain's running mate, made the disclosures last month, but after Election Day when she and McCain lost to Barack Obama and Joe Biden. The trips were first revealed in a story by The Associated Press in October. The free trips were taken in April and May of 2007 and should have been reported within 30 days under state ethics law. The Nov. 17 disclosure forms note... [Tags: administrative error, alaska gov, alaska town, anchorage alaska, barack obama]

Failed Presidential Candidate Retreats To The '70s [Life After Politics On Mars] — It's not John McCain, sadly, but the next best thing. Fred Thompson - the lawyer-turned-actor-turned-senator-turned-Republican-presidential-nominee - has signed up for a stint as Harvey Keitel's boss in ABC's time-traveling cop show Life On Mars. He'll make his first appearance next year, when the show moves to Wednesday nights, following the return of Lost. [EW.com]... [Tags: abc, boss, cop show, first appearance, fred thompson]

Alabama County Passes Annual Obama Holiday — MARION, Ala. — In central Alabama's Perry County, government workers already get a day off for President's Day, Martin Luther King Day, and Veterans Day. In 2009, they'll get one more: "Barack Obama Day." The rural county, which overwhelmingly supported Obama in last month's presidential election, has approved the second Monday in November as "The Barack Obama Day." Commissioners passed a measure that would close county offices for the new annual holiday and its roughly 40 workers will get a paid day off. Sponsoring commissioner Albert Turner Jr. said the holiday is meant to highlight the Democratic president-elect's victory as... [Tags: alabama county, barack obama, central alabama, confederate memorial day, confederate president]

Cue The Music From Jaws — She has not gone away:“We had John McCain and Mike Huckabee and Gov. Romney and Rudy Giuliani, but Sarah Palin came in on the last day, did a fly-around and, man, she was dynamite,” Chambliss said. “We packed the houses everywhere we went. And it really did allow us to peak and get our base fired up.”... [Tags: cue, dynamite, fly, jaws, john mccain]

Virginia GOP Chairman Defends Comparison To Bin Laden — Remember Jeff Frederick, the Virginia GOP chairman who told McCain canvassers to compare Barack Obama to Osama Bin Laden? Well Mr. Frederick is sticking to his guns. Although he concedes his remark was dumb, he's defending it as 'true.' Va. GOP chief: Obama remark was stupid but true Virginia's Republican chairman said Tuesday that his remark tying Democrat Barack Obama to Osama bin Laden during the presidential campaign was stupid, but he refused to apologize... ...Frederick was asked about the remark Tuesday during a discussion of the 2008 Virginia presidential campaign with a group of newspaper editors. Obama was the... [Tags: barack obama, campaign volunteers, canvassers, crowd of people, democratic presidential candidate]

Obama And Oil Companies: Did The President-Elect Just Break His First Campaign Promise? — Did Barack Obama just break his first campaign promise? On the campaign trail, Obama railed against big oil companies. He often criticized John McCain for backing tax cuts that would reward ExxonMobil and other top oil manufacturers. But now Obama's proposal to apply a windfall tax on big oil has vanished... at least from his transition website. The President-elect's transition team hasn't explicitly announced it will drop the windfall tax plan, but a transition aide, commenting on the condition he not be identified, backed off the promise in an email. "President-elect Obama announced the [windfall profits tax] policy during the... [Tags: advocacy group, barack obama, business league, campaign promise, campaign trail]

Robert Scheer: Will Obama Stay the Course? — I do so want to believe that Barack Obama is on the right track. His brain is big, his style fresh, his pronouncements both logical and compelling, and it does feel good to have a president-elect elicit universal respect rather than make the world cringe. Indeed, he's downright inspiring when he defends constitutional restraint on the presidency and shuns torture. Bush is so yesterday, but imagine how panicked we would now be if John McCain and Sarah Palin were about to take a turn at the wheel. Yet, it all does hang on him. Yes, Obama. The superstar, and not... [Tags: bailout, barack obama, credit markets, donald rumsfeld, grand arc]

GA-Sen: Election Day! — Today's the big day in Georgia, and we're all pulling hard for a shocker from Orange to Blue Democrat Jim Martin. The race is going to come down to turnout - for Martin to win, it would take low turnout overall, coupled with relatively high turnout in the African-American community. It looks like turnout is fairly high, which may not bode well: About 100 residents had voted by 8 a.m. at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Snellville. An hour after voting started, there was no line and balloting took five minutes. But poll workers said the morning turnout was higher than... [Tags: blackhawk, chambliss saxby, election day, helicop, herd]

Digital Media and the Field of Dreams Myth — You don’t have to convince me of Digital Media’s power - I’m already a huge believer. While I am happy to see more and more organizations grow in their awareness for their need to take advantage of its many benefits, I am frequently amused/frustrated by the Field of Dreams mentality that seems to be so prevalent in their current approaches. Digital Media is not a magic baseball field. People are not going to come just because you build Social Media applications. Creating a Facebook group for your issue or organization is not going to create a torrent of enthusiasm where... [Tags: 100 million, application names, array, baseball field, believer]

Plaxico Heads to Giants Stadium, Hospital Under Fire — Plaxico Burress is at Giants Stadium to meet with team officials for the first time since he accidentally shot himself in the thigh. And the NYPD is why investigatinging why NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell, which treated the Giants star, did not report the shooting to the police. According to the NY Times, state law requires hospitals or doctors to contact the authorities "at once." The NYPD's chief spokesman Paul Browne said that when police arrived on Saturday (90 minutes after Burress checked out), a hospital administrator tried to cite a privacy statute as why the police weren't called, "They initially cited... [Tags: 10c, antonio pierce, barack obama, chief spokesman, daily show with jon stewart]

Dave Hackel: Not What? — Now what? by Dave Hackel The obvious answer to "Now what?" is "Who the hell knows?" But I made a wish list. Barack Obama: You've excited this country. Thank you. You've given a new generation of voters the exhilarating feeling that they matter. That's invaluable. So, from this point forward your job is pretty clear - do your best to make good on the promises you've made. They excited us, so we remember them all. And if you find that you're unable to keep a promise, talk to us. You're welcome to do so without any pre-conditions. You've gained our... [Tags: alaska, barack obama, campaign trail, constitution, dave hackel]

No escaping Britney Spears: 2008's top searches — Maybe all our refined, enlightened interests are lost in the long tail, because Britney Spears once again was the most popular search subject in 2008 on Yahoo. For Yahoo, Spears wasn't the only pop-culture icon in Yahoo's top 10 searches. Also on the list were Miley Cyrus at No. 4, Jessica Alba at No. 6, Lindsay Lohan at No. 7, and Angelina Jolie at No. 9. Apparently a lot of people are curious about World Wrestling Entertainment, because WWE was No. 2. The online game RuneScape was No. 5, anime series Naruto was No. 7, and American Idol finished... [Tags: angelina jolie, arnold schwarzenegger, barack obama, economy recession, gold prices]

Hagel, Lieberman Praise Obama's National Security Team — Nebraska Sen. Chuck Hagel, a moderate Republican who is retiring this year and had been mentioned as a possibility for some national security posts, congratulated Obama on naming "a serious, experienced and widely respected group of leaders. They are all seasoned professionals." Also offering high praise: Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman, the onetime Democrat and 2000 vice presidential nominee who is now independent and broke ranks this year to support Republican John McCain. Obama intervened to allow him to remain as chairman of the Senate homeland security committee next year.... [Tags: chairman of the senate, chuck hagel, connecticut, democrat, high praise]

A New Spot of Blue in Wyoming — One of the greatest disappointments of November 4 was Wyoming, where one of our best Congressional candidates--Gary Trauner--couldn't overcome the Republican flood of a presidential election vote. But there's a very good bit of news out of that state with a Democratic legislative pick-up, coming by way of a highly unusual revote. Democrat Jim Roscoe, a home builder, marathoner and former ski patrolman who has never run for public office ran for the open District 22 seat in the state House against Republican Charles Stough, a recent transplant. Roscoe won in the general election in a complete squeaker, by just... [Tags: canvassing board, congressional candidates, democratic state committeeman, e mail, election judges]